Wearables for health

This research explores the motivations, behaviors, and challenges of long-term Apple Watch users aged 18–35, focusing on their engagement with health-related functionalities. The research reveals evolving motivations for using the device, starting from basic fitness tracking and expanding to include features like sleep monitoring and communication aids.

Project Overview

Motivation

The research team wanted to understand what factors motivate people to initially purchase a wearable device, how they leverage the device and those insights, and what features of the device may go underutilized over the long-term use.

Stakeholders

Apple Watch Product Teams
- UX Researchers
- Product Managers
- Designers
- Product Development

Contributors

This research was conducted in collaboration with three other student researchers from the University of Washington, Human-Centered Design and Engineering department.

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ONLINE OBSERVATIONS INSIGHTS

Reddit, X (Twitter)
Instagram
Written Articles / Blogs
Commerce Reviews

Frustrations

These frustrations negatively impacted users' overall experience and satisfaction with the device.

1. Reliability of workout tracking features
2. Battery length

Valued Features

These features were valued by users as they increased use and motivation.

1. Key health features like insights from Apple Watch Vitals
2. Heart Rate Tracker
3. Gamified fitness metrics

INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS INSIGHTS

We conducted 6 one-on-one user interviews with Apple Watch users (with six or more months of use) who reside in the Greater Seattle area and were between 18-35 years old.

Analysis:

Blind coding to identify recurring insights across participants
Create a comprehensive codebook
Flag interviews for similarities and contrasting insights
Include memos
Affinity mapping of key to generate a list of themes that translated our findings

Motivations evolves and expand in scope over time, as people discover more beneficial features, and while some novelties may fade, the habits often do not.

Users' initial motivations to adopt the Apple Watch expand as they discover new features, transitioning from novelty to habit formation.

“The more I've worn [my Apple Watch], the more I feel like I want to continue to wear it, because I do like the convenience of the [features the watch provides]” - P2

“Initially fitness was a cool perk, but eventually became a reason to wear it every day.” -P3

Apple Watch consistently enabled participants to adjust their immediate or short-term health-related behavior but did not present distinct benefits for long-term behavior changes.

There was a broad range of Apple Watch features being used on a regular basis by the study participants, but one commonality in their usage was that many of them would review their daily activity or when they receive trigger-based notifications, and would subsequently take immediate action to correct their behavior.

In contrast to the consistent comments around immediate behavior changes prompted by the Apple Watch, there was a wide range of sentiments towards feeling like the Apple Watch made strides in making progress toward long-term health goals.

“I haven’t set any [long-term goals], but I do try to close my [activity] rings on a daily basis. I find it especially motivating when I’m on vacation or when I’m out and about.” - P6

“[The watch helps me to

understand] what I’m doing to

improve my general fitness.

Ideally, I’ll see trends improve and

going in a good direction.” - P3

Users may underutilize insights from their watch due to a lack of full trust in the insights provided by their Apple Watch.

Multiple participants mentioned standing hours, distance, and wake time as unreliable metrics. However, one participant explained that simply shaking the wrist, whether sitting or lying down, would be recorded as standing, whereas if you are already standing before being prompted to stand up, it does not count towards the standing goal.

“With rings - the different goals (e.g. standing) sometimes notify of reaching the goal when not standing and causes some mistrust in the measurement of that.” - P6

“The data [the watch] gives you is

pretty basic, which I don't mind it

being basic. But I feel like if I were to get into [tracking my biometric data] and really want that information, that other watches might offer better quality data.” -P2